Yearning for Home

Zephyr roamed the hallway as he made his way towards the room he had paid for the children to stay in. Most of the doors he walked past were quiet, as if no one resided behind them, but he heard a familiar voice as he rounded the corner. A huffy voice was exclaiming to be allowed to go out. On the other side of the door a flush Nimin was glaring at the taller, older Maxim. With another exclamation that he wouldn’t be told what to do he yanked the door open only to find Zephyr on the other side. 

Nimin’s eyes grew large and he stepped back into the room as fast as he could. “I..I wasn’t going out. I swear! He did though.” Nimin pointed at Maxim. “He went out a bunch! I saw him.” Zephyr tried hard to control his smile and instead said, “I don’t doubt all of you did, so sit.” As he looked around the room, it seemed much smaller than when he had first left the children there. It was more cramped as a double of pretty much everything dotted the room. There were two lamps, a lot more pillows and various other amenities. What proceeded was a long talk about what could and could not be taken. They couldn’t really give anything back but Zephyr asked them all to stop taking things from the patrons and the tavern. Nimin argued back that Zephyr had always taught them to take whatever they could to survive. “You said that!” He yelled again as his anger resurfaced. 

The newly paid Bard pulled a small pouch that bulged with coin. “We have plenty of gold now, see. We don’t need to be fancy and get a bunch of stuff. We have money for now so let off the stealing for a bit alright? I can buy whatever we need or want. This isn’t Waterdeep, people notice when their things go missing here.” A small bead of sweat ran down the side of Zephyr’s face as he tried his best to play dad to his much younger friends. New questions burts from the children as the sting of the talking-to faded from their thoughts. Were they going home soon? They had heard a mom was somewhere. Were they going to see her? He winced as their questions squeezed at his heart. Now though, he was exhausted and wanted some sleep. Grabbing a blanket and pillow, he set himself up in front of the door. Zephyr went to sleep hoping that would be enough. 

No sooner had his head hit the pillow and his trance began that he heard a little pitter patter of feet and, a few silent moments later, a tug at the door. It began to open slowly. Zephyr popped one eye open to see what the commotion was. He still didn’t know if the tugging came from outside or inside. His eye met the focused gaze of Maxim looking straight down at him as he gripped the, slightly ajar, door’s handle. “Uhhhh, I was just checking if the door was locked. Go, go back to sleep. I’ve got it here.” As he spoke he closed the door and slowly walked backwards into the room. The other two children sat on the bed with wide grins on their faces as Maxim was caught red handed breaking the rules. 

In another room Lullaby waited and waited for Dvalin to come back but he never did. Within the lonely room the little Kenku began to sing herself to sleep. It was a beautiful serenade for one. Only her ears heard that wonderful sound she made. While the others slept in the adjacent rooms, not one soul heard her bird song. Everyone slept soundly for the entire night. Even the children eventually wound down enough to sleep. By morning they had had a wonderful, uninterrupted rest. Their exhaustion was a thing of the past as they completed their sleep. A bright green light glowed over the land as the Frost Maiden’s spell wove through the sky above. 

Dvalin woke up first, with a growling stomach and a parched throat. He walked off in search of food, away from the ebbing warmth of the forge. Brenna and Mythe woke up and, as they were getting ready for the day, she asked if he had a real name? Mythe answered that it was the name of the person he was now. Brenna nodded and didn’t pry further. She just wanted to get a good name for him that he would appreciate, but he seemed to like the name he had so she left it alone. When she went downstairs, she asked if the kitchen needed any meat to restock with. Brenna had plenty of bear meat and figured she could get a few free meals out of it. Sadly, it was midnight so the owner would not be available to negotiate for the food until eight in the morning. 

Brenna swore because she would have to wait so long but there was nothing to do about it so she went to sit at one of the tables. The rest of their group joined her at the table and they began tucking in to the same kind of food they had had last night. At some point Dvalin came in and plopped himself down on one of the chairs to eat. He had a barely awake look that said he needed some food before he could join the rest of them in conversation.